From those calm and detached observers at the New York Times:

Explosive Device Found in London, Police Say

By ALAN COWELL and MIKE NIZZA

LONDON, June 29 — British police said they discovered an explosive device in a car abandoned outside a nightclub in the West End theater and entertainment district of central London early today and began a terrorism investigation.

The police said they had found significant quantities of gasoline, propane cylinders and nails in the car, a silver-green Mercedes, which had now been made safe.

Parts of central London were cordoned off after the incident, near the landmark Piccadilly Circus area, the police said.

In a press briefing, Peter Clarke, head of Britain’s counterterrorism command, said the explosive materials had had the potential to cause “significant injury or loss of life.”

Many other questions were met with his refusal to speculate during the early stages of an investigation. Evidence so far was said to include closed circuit television footage, along with witness accounts, which are emerging in news coverage. Mr. Clarke urged those people and any other witnesses to call a hotline.

Mr. Clarke said the British authorities had had no intelligence that an attack was coming. The police were alerted after people working for the ambulance service were called to a separate incident in the area and noticed what they thought was smoke coming from the car, Mr. Clarke said. “The threat from terrorism is here, it’s real, it’s enduring,” Mr. Clarke said. “Life goes on.” …

Gee, the New York Times is almost as skeptical about this report (“police say”) as Al Jazeera, who practically top the BBC in their use of editorializing “quotes”:

‘Car bomb’ scare in London        

British police say they have defused a “potentially viable explosive device” in an abandoned car in London’s Haymarket area.

Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera’s correspondent said police confirmed that nails and 200 litres of fuel were found inside a Mercedes Benz outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus.

Witnesses said the occupant fled the scene after car was driven “erratically” before smashing into some bins.

Counter-terrorism police have launched an investigation after explosives officers were called to the scene shortly before 2am [0100GMT], police said…

You see it would just be silly to call this an Al Qaeda-like car bomb designed to kill and maim and terrorize Londoners. 

From the DNC’s Reuters:

Senate hands Bush major defeat on immigration

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate delivered an apparently fatal blow on Thursday to President George W. Bush’s planned immigration overhaul and dashed the hopes of millions of immigrants seeking legal status.

In a crucial make or break vote that exposed deep lack of support among Bush’s own Republicans, the legislation fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate to advance toward a final vote.

Supporters of the bill, which was the result of months of negotiations between a group of Republican and Democratic senators and the White House, were dismayed by the vote…

Bush has sought an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws for years and this bill may have been his last chance for a significant domestic legislative victory before leaving office at the end of his second term in January 2009.

Bush made clear he was moving on from immigration to other issues like balancing the federal budget. “A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn’t find common ground (on immigration), it didn’t work,” Bush said in a stop at the Naval War College in Rhode Island.

The president was unable to overcome fierce opposition from fellow Republicans who said it was an amnesty for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and would do little to stem illegal immigration.

Even the promise of an additional $4.4 billion to pay for more border security and enforcement did not quell Republican opposition….

A small sampling of other headlines:

Blow to Bush as immigration bill crashes down
Turkish Press, MI
The US Senate meted out a severe blow to President George W. Bush Thursday, blocking a landmark immigration reform seen as one of his last, best hopes for a …

Bush’s immigration reform withdrawn from Senate
Earthtimes.org 
Most Republican senators and some Democrats had long opposed Bush’s immigration proposals, which included a “guest worker” programme and – most …

US Senate Blocks Major Immigration Reform in Defeat for Bush
Voice of America 
By VOA News The US Senate has blocked a major immigration reform bill that was strongly backed by President Bush and would have given legal status to some …

US Senate hands Bush major defeat on immigration
Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates 
WASHINGTON – The US Senate delivered an apparently fatal blow on Thursday to President George W. Bush’s planned immigration overhaul and dashed the hopes of …

Senate blocks Bush’s immigration bill
Cincinnati Post, OH 
The vote was a stinging setback for Bush, who advocated the bill as an imperfect but necessary fix of current immigration practices in which many illegal …

Gee, it seems like only yesterday this Kennedy-McCain legislation was being called “bi-partisan” by our watchdog media.

What happened?

From The Hill:

[AFP caption:] The motorcade that carries US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is seen as it arrives at the US Capitol 12 June, 2007 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. An influential group of Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected President George W. Bush’s sweeping immigration reform bill — before even seeing the final product.

46-53, immigration bill goes down in defeat

By Klaus Marre
June 28, 2007

The comprehensive immigration reform bill that has dodged attacks from the left and right for weeks, survived “poison pill” amendments, and was once pulled from the Senate schedule failed its most important test Thursday. Passage of the legislation now appears unlikely.

The bipartisan coalition that had shepherded the measure through so many obstacles failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate. The final vote was 46-53

Until Thursday morning, it was unclear whether the bill would survive the cloture vote. But in the end, opponents of the measure from both sides of the political spectrum gained enough support to derail the legislation. Liberals felt it did not go far enough in protecting illegal immigrants, while conservatives rejected the bill because they felt it would grant amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.

Republican foes of the measure argued that the American public was broadly united in opposition to the bill and had made its views known by flooding Congress with phone calls and e-mails.

“What part of ‘no’ don’t we understand?,” asked Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who said the immigration fight had “reengaged the American people.”

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the key members of the coalition that crafted the bill, warned is Republican colleagues ahead of the vote.

“Remember this day if you vote ‘no,’” Graham said, adding that this bill would not come back in its current form and it is “as good as it gets.”

President Bush has taken a hands-on approach to the legislation, which he views as an important part of his domestic legacy. Leading up to the vote, called senators to urge them to support the bill.

For now. But it seems to be irresistible to too many of our great ”leaders.”

Just like their heroes the illegal aliens, they will find a way to sneak it back.

“Remember this day if you vote ‘no,’” Graham said, adding that this bill would not come back in its current form and it is “as good as it gets.”

We’ll take our chances, Mr. Graham. 

This “deal” in a nutshell was this: The Democrats grandly offered to pretend to do something about enforcing our borders if the Republicans would allow all of the (30 million or so) illegal aliens and their extended families to become (Democrat) voters.

Some deal. And who but buffoons like Lindsay Graham would have even considered it?

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Mr. Graham.

By the way, please note the AFP’s photo caption:

An influential group of Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected President George W. Bush’s sweeping immigration reform bill — before even seeing the final product.

Never mind that Congress was supposed to vote for a 700 page bill that none of them had seen, much less read.

But there’s no bias there.

From those champions of the rule of law at the DNC’s Associated Press:

Bush won’t supply subpoenaed documents

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON – President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

In reaction, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy accused the administration of shifting “into Nixonian stonewalling” and revealing “disdain for our system of checks and balances.” …

Thursday was the deadline for surrendering the documents. The White House also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas, which were issued June 13. The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.

“Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law,” said Leahy, D-Vt., after getting the news from Fielding in an early-morning phone call. “In America no one is above law.” …

Tensions between the administration and the Democratic-run Congress have been building for months as the House and Senate Judiciary panels have sought to probe the firings of eight federal prosecutors and the administration’s program of warrantless eavesdropping. The investigations are part of the Democrats’ efforts to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Democrats say the firings of the prosecutors over the winter was an example of improper political influence. The White House says U.S. attorneys are political appointees who can be hired and fired for almost any reason…

Just Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, demanding documents pertaining to terrorism-era warrant-free eavesdropping.

Separately, that panel also is summoning Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters — including the prosecutor firings — that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs.

The Judiciary panels also subpoenaed the National Security Council. Leahy added that, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., he would consider pursuing contempt citations against those who refuse.

This is what it has all been about. To try to get headlines about a “Constitutional showdown.” And of course they jump at any excuse to dust off the specter of Richard Nixon.

Bear in mind that there have been no laws broken. The Democrats haven’t even been able to come up with any plausible charges about any laws being broken. Not even such boldfaced liars as Patrick Leahy and John Conyers.

Every week they throw up some new charge, eavesdropping, attorneys firings, hoping something will stick. Yet there is never any there there.

But none of that matters. The Democrats just want the perception of a scandal. And of course their lickspittle slaveys in the media are only too happy to further their efforts.

It is just another front in the war to try to discredit and destroy the administration any way it can.

Meanwhile, we have soldiers dying half way around the world to defend our country. When some of its worst enemies sit right in the halls of power.

“Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law,” said Leahy, D-Vt., after getting the news from Fielding in an early-morning phone call. “In America no one is above law.”

If that were only true the America-hating traitor Mr. Leahy would be turning big rocks into little rocks in a penitentiary somewhere.

From those champions of the little guy at the Associated Press:

House members seek pay raise of $4,400

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Despite low approval ratings and hard feelings from last year’s elections, Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000.

The cost-of-living raise endorsed Wednesday evening gets lawmakers back on track for automatic pay raises after a fight between the parties last year and again in January killed the pay increase due this year. That was the first interruption of the annual congressional pay boost in seven years.

The blowup came after Democrats last year fulfilled a campaign promise to deny themselves more pay until Congress raised the minimum wage. Delays in the minimum wage bill cost every lawmaker about $3,100 this year…

The annual vote on the pay hike comes on an obscure procedural move — instead of a direct up-or-down vote — and Democratic and GOP leaders each delivered a majority of their members to shut off the move to block the pay hike.

This year’s vote was made ticklish by last year’s battle. Republicans said Democrats broke a promise not to use the pay raise issue against GOP lawmakers in campaign ads and therefore were, generally speaking, more reluctant to supply votes…

The exact figure for this year’s cost of living adjustment has not been settled under a complicated formula that awards lawmakers a smaller pay raise than civil servants. But opponents of the congressional COLA estimated a pay increase this year of 2.7 percent, or $4,460.

Senators and representatives presently make $165,200 a year, with a handful of leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earning more…

What timing. Congress proves once again it has a tin ear about everything.

Needless to say our representatives don’t have the guts to openly vote themselves a raise. (Which they have gotten automatically for the last seven years.)

Hell, they can’t even figure out how much it should be.

But this is what they should get.

From their allies at the Associated Press:

20 beheaded bodies found in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Twenty beheaded bodies were discovered Thursday on the banks of the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad and a car bomb killed another 20 people in one of the capital’s busy outdoor bus stations, police said.

The beheaded remains were found in the Sunni Muslim village of Um al-Abeed, near the city of Salman Pak, which lies 14 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The bodies — all men aged 20 to 40 — had their hands and legs bound, and some of the heads were found next to the bodies, two officers said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

The victims’ identities were unknown, but they were found in an area where Shiite travelers have been kidnapped and killed in the past, en route to the Shiite-dominated provinces of Wasit, Maysan and Basra.

A bomb in a parked car ripped through a crowded transport hub in southwest Baghdad’s Baiyaa neighborhood at morning rush hour, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 50, another officer said on the same condition.

Many of the victims had been lining up for buses, awaiting a ride to work. Some 40 minibuses were incinerated, police said…

AP Television News video showed a square strewn with smoldering car parts and charred bodies with clothes in tatters. Bystanders, some weeping, gingerly loaded human remains into ambulances.

A pickup truck rumbled slowly away from the scene, with two pairs of legs — the dead bodies of victims — dangling out of the back.

One of the police officers who gave information about the ghastly discovery of bodies southeast of Baghdad is based at Interior Ministry headquarters in the capital, and the other is based in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad…

The report about the beheadings sounds pretty sketchy, since it seems to be each based on the word of two anonymous policemen. 

Still, it’s grisly and probably considered to be demoralizing, so the AP ran with it.

From those famous champions of “the people” at the New York Times:

Senator Mel Martinez, center, Republican of Florida, said he had received a threatening letter related to the immigration bill.

Immigration Bill Prompts Some Menacing Responses

By JEFF ZELENY

Published: June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 27 — The threat came in the weekend mail.

The recipient was Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, who has been a leading advocate of the proposed legislation for changing the immigration system. His offices in Washington and across Florida have received thousands of angry messages in recent weeks, but nothing as alarming as that letter he received at his home.

“I’ll turn it over to Capitol police, and we’ll go from there,” said Mr. Martinez, who declined to elaborate on the nature of the threat.

On the eve of a crucial vote on the immigration bill, the Capitol Hill switchboard was deluged again Wednesday as thousands of citizens called their members of Congress — and, perhaps, someone else’s — to weigh in. Not since the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, several Senate aides said, have the lines been so jammed by a single issue.

Republicans who support the immigration bill are facing unusually intense opposition from conservative groups fighting it. This is among the first times, several of them said, that they have felt the full brunt of an advocacy machine built around conservative talk radio and cable television programs that have long buttressed Republican efforts to defeat Democrats and their policies.

While the majority of the telephone calls and faxes, letters and e-mail messages have been civil, aides to several senators said, the correspondence has taken a menacing tone in several cases.

Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican who is undecided on the final immigration bill, said his office received a telephone call recently that “made a threat about knowing where I lived.” Mr. Burr passed it along to the authorities. “There were enough specifics to raise some alarm bells,” he said.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is one of the architects of the immigration overhaul, said he also had received threats in telephone calls and letters to his office. Mr. Graham said several other senators had told him privately that they also received similar messages.

“There’s racism in this debate,” Mr. Graham said. “Nobody likes to talk about it, but a very small percentage of people involved in this debate really have racial and bigoted remarks. The tone that we create around these debates, whether it be rhetoric in a union hall or rhetoric on talk radio, it can take people who are on the fence and push them over emotionally.” …

At the heart of the opposition rests conservative hosts on talk radio and cable television, which often are a muscular if untamed piece of the Republican message machine.

Several senators said Wednesday that they did not care to be identified speaking critically of the broadcasters, fearing the same conservative backlash that befell Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, this month when he declared: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.” …

[T]echnology advances have made it easier to deliver more messages to members of Congress. Many e-mail messages sent to the Senate are copied to multiple offices, including one that was forwarded to the authorities this week. Referring to supporters of the bill, it closed with the line: “They need to be taken out by ANY MEANS.” …

As Mr. Graham walked back to his office on Wednesday, he said he doubted that senators would be deterred by any threats. “I’m sure a lot of the people who have taken a high-profile position on this have been threatened, but what are you going to do?” he said. “You saw what happened to Senator Daschle.”

Mr. Graham was referring to Tom Daschle, the former Democratic majority leader from South Dakota, whose office received a mailing of anthrax in 2001. The case remains unsolved.

“One of the requirements of public service in modern America is dealing with a few voices that are full of hate,” Mr. Graham said. “And our discourse and the way we politic, the way we engage each other, brings that out.”

No doubt there have been some intemperate messages sent to congress, along with the millions of polite and respectful ones.

But just as surely there is a similar percentage of such “threats” in all the messages they receive on a daily basis. So why are we hearing about this now?

You know why.

First, it’s to reinforce the libel that the people who oppose amnesty are a bunch of kooks and “racists.” (Even those illegal aliens are not a race.)

But almost as important to the media, it gives them yet another chance to warn against the dangers of “talk radio,” who they claim are manipulating the great unwashed and filling our (limited) minds with hatred and thoughts of violence.

And that is probably the main reason The Times published this “news article”:

This is among the first times, several [Republicans] said, that they have felt the full brunt of an advocacy machine built around conservative talk radio and cable television programs that have long buttressed Republican efforts to defeat Democrats and their policies…

At the heart of the opposition rests conservative hosts on talk radio and cable television, which often are a muscular if untamed piece of the Republican message machine.

This is pretty ironic, given that the whole “fairness” movement is just an attempt to get taxpayer money for Air America, Radio Pacifica, Democracy Now! and other radical 24/7 hate America operations.

But really, imagine the New York Times’ horror at the citizenry actually contacting their representatives and asking them to do what they want.

Meanwhile professional full-time leftwing agitators like Code Pink go to Capitol Hill and occupy hearing rooms and Congressional offices and do their level best to shut down business until they get what they want.

And they get nothing but praise from their fans at the New York Times.

Instead, people writing their Congressmen get compared to terrorists who send anthrax.

Unbelievable. But that is how our Congress and the New York Times apparently see it.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Israel lets Hamas member enter Gaza

By YAAKOV KATZ

Despite Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) opposition and per the request of the BBC, the coordinator of government activities allowed a Hamas member who works for the BBC to enter the Gaza Strip last week to assist in efforts to release kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston.

Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post that a week ago, a request came from the BBC asking that a Palestinian employee of the news company who is believed to be a close associate of senior Hamas officials be allowed to enter Gaza.

The employee, who lives in Gaza, had traveled to Egypt with his wife for medical reasons and the BBC told Israeli officials that they believed he could assist in negotiating Johnston’s release.

The Shin Bet objected to the BBC request, saying that the employee was actually a member of Hamas, and perhaps even a terrorist operative.

In the end, however, the Defense Ministry decided to allow him to to enter Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge and then to enter northern Gaza through the Erez crossing.

He was not able to enter Gaza directly from Egypt since the Rafah crossing was closed…

The Palestinian entered Gaza, and after a few days informed his BBC employers that Johnston was not being held by Hamas and therefore the group had little influence over his captors, believed to be from the Army of Islam and members of the Durmush clan from the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip…

BBC strongly denied that any of its employees were members of Hamas.

In a statement, the BBC said, “Like all large international organizations, the BBC regularly seeks the assistance of the Israeli authorities in moving its Palestinian staff in and out of Gaza. The BBC does not employ anyone who is a member of Hamas or any other Palestinian faction.”

No, of course they don’t.

They aren’t biased either.

From an elated Associated Press:

Return-home amendment defeated

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday killed a Republican proposal to require all adult illegal immigrants to return home temporarily in order to qualify for permanent lawful status in this country.

The vote was 53-45 to table an amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that was one of several proposals designed to respond to conservatives who decry President Bush’s immigration bill as a form of amnesty.

The bill could grant lawful status to as many as 12 million illegal immigrants as long as they passed background checks and paid fines and fees. Heads of household seeking permanent legal residency would have to return home to apply for green cards, however.

Without her amendment, Hutchison said shortly before the vote, “the amnesty tag that has been put on this bill will remain. It is the key issue in the bill for the American people.” …

“It’s going to be a rough ride,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., an architect of the bill. “We’re in trench warfare.” …

What a shock, huh?

“It’s going to be a rough ride,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., an architect of the bill. “We’re in trench warfare.”

Yes, our “representatives” have declared war on us.

From those all-knowing holy men at Islam Question and Answer:

He got a prize from the lottery company and he did not know

Question:

I won in a competition organized by a British company although, as Allaah is my witness, I did not know anything about this company before, and I did not have anything to do with them whatsoever. But they chose random numbers from around the world and one of these numbers was mine. The purpose of these prizes that the company gives out, according to what they say, is to spread knowledge and culture around the world and to encourage health awareness in society. When I researched the company I found out that it is a lottery company. Is the prize regarded as haraam or halaal? I hope that you can advise me because I am confused. Can I take the money and buy a house for my family and donate the rest to the needy?.

Answer:

Praise be to Allaah.

If the matter is as you describe and you had nothing to do with the company and knew nothing about it, and if taking the prize does not involve advertising or promoting the company and the gambling it organizes, then there is nothing wrong with you taking it and benefiting from it. 

And Allaah knows best.

Oh, my sides.

Someone had better warn Allah about these notorious and preposterously obvious internet scams.

From an outraged (at the demonstrators) AFP:

Angry protests flare in Iran over petrol rationing

by Pierre Celerier Wed Jun 27

TEHRAN (AFP) – Angry youths torched petrol stations and long queues formed at heavily-guarded fuel pumps on Wednesday after oil-rich Iran announced the start of fuel rationing, triggering nationwide protests.

“Several stations were damaged by agitators,” state radio reported, as angry drivers trying to stock up on fuel clashed with police after the surprise announcement that the rationing would take effect from midnight Tuesday.

Shouting “(President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad must be killed,” stone-throwing demonstrators set ablaze a car and petrol pumps at a service station in the Pounak residential area of northwestern Tehran late on Tuesday.

The protests are the first such open outpouring of anger since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, although criticism has mounted recently in some economic circles that his policies were fuelling inflation and hurting the poor.

Iran, OPEC’s number two oil producer and the fourth in the world, announced on Tuesday that its rationing plan, aimed at reducing colossal state petrol subsidies, would extend to private cars and taxis…

Long queues of cars, some several kilometres (miles) long, snaked from petrol stations in Tehran and across the country as armed police stood guard. In some areas, people turned up with buckets to fill up with fuel.

“From midnight tonight (2030 GMT) petrol for all vehicles and motorcycles will be rationed,” state television said, quoting an oil ministry statement issued just a few hours before the rationing came into force.

It said private cars using just petrol would be rationed to 100 litres of petrol a month while those using petrol and liquefied gas would only be allowed 30 litres.

The government said the rationing would continue for four months and might be extended further to six months in Iran, where there are more than seven million cars on the roads.

Separate quotas have also been introduced for both municipal yellow taxis and privately-run taxis, both essential means of transport in Iran.

Cheap pump prices have encouraged such consumption in Iran that the government ironically had to spend five billion dollars importing petrol in the last financial year ended March.

Its refining capacity covers only about 60 percent of its needs, while smugglers also illegally take cheap petrol out of the country to neighbouring states where pump prices are far higher.

Iran launched the first phase of the rationing plan two weeks ago, initially targeting only government vehicles.

Last month, it also raised pump prices by 25 percent, to around 10 cents per litre, for a commodity that still costs less than a comparable amount of mineral water.

Iran estimates that without rationing, fuel imports could reach 9.5 billion dollars a year…

This brings back memories of the man who started it all, Jimmy Carter. But this time the shoe is on the other foot.

Just imagine how screwed up you have to be to have ration gasoline and even import oil while being the world’s fourth largest exporter of petroleum. (And I realize that refining is a different process. But still.)

I sure hope they bought some of Al Gore’s carbon offsets for that demonstration.

From those lovers of terrorists everywhere, Reuters:

Daughters and sons of two Palestinian brothers Sami and Yassif al-Manasrah, who were killed by an Israeli tank shell, react during their fathers funeral in Gaza June 27, 2007.

Israeli forces kill 12 Palestinians in Gaza raid

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, mostly gunmen but also a 12-year-old boy and other civilians, on Wednesday in the deadliest raid in Gaza since Hamas seized the territory, medical workers said.

The operation in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis appeared to signal Israel intended to keep strong military pressure on Hamas along with its efforts to isolate the Islamist militant group financially and politically.

The violence erupted as Middle East mediators prepared to appoint outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair as their new envoy in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking despite Hamas’s takeover in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Israeli incursion was part of a “conspiracy in which (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas is a participant and which is aimed at pressuring Hamas and the people of Gaza.”

Four of the nine militants killed in the Israeli operation belonged to Hamas, which routed forces from Abbas’s secular Fatah faction in the territory two weeks ago.

Local residents in two Gaza battle zones said gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and detonated explosive devices in confrontations with Israeli infantry and armor.

A 12-year-old lay in the street, his arms twisted at odd angles, near a house in a Gaza City neighborhood where residents and medical workers said a shell fired by an Israeli tank had caused an explosion.

He was pronounced dead in a hospital along with two men, their bodies shredded by shrapnel. Residents said the men were civilians…

Ever notice how, according to our watchdog media, it is always women, children and civilians who are the casualties of any Israeli attack upon the Palestinians?

And even if that is the case, why should we believe they weren’t combatants?